Interview with Mike Koehler / FCPA Professor Blog
When I read The New York Times front-page article in 2012 about Wal-Mart’s alleged bribes in Mexico, I thought it was going to be the U.S. equivalent of Siemens in Germany. Before I ask you about that, can you bring us up to date on Wal-Mart’s FCPA investigation? What has happened over the past five years?Continue Reading Much Ado About…Little?: How a ‘garden variety’ FCPA investigation of Walmart grabbed the spotlight
Article by Alan R. Boynton, Jr. / McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC
The reality for almost every business is that not all of its employees are going to be happy in their jobs and that, at any given time, one or more is going to be seeking greener pastures. Many times those pastures are owned by competitors, and any business owner or CEO who fails to anticipate and plan for employee defections may also be inviting the loss of substantial business.Continue Reading Making a Federal Case Out of It: Now when trade secrets go walking out the door, employers have a new vehicle to try to get them back
By David Yurkerwich / Navigant
The Chinese intellectual property sector has been changing and growing for years, but few people would tell you so. The country has long been labeled as an IP rights violator and generally carries a bad reputation in its handling of copyrights. But Chinese companies are becoming more aggressive in building patent portfolios.Continue Reading New Risks – and 3 Tips – for Patent Holders in China: Chinese companies have aggressively grown their portfolios
Article by Sasko Markovski & Amy C. Cococcia / Fragomen
Australia has been next in line across a number of jurisdictions around the globe to announce significant changes to employer-based immigration programs. This article provides an overview of some of the key changes announced as well as guidance on what actions businesses should be taking where impacted.
Continue Reading What You Need to Know About Australia’s Visa Changes: The new rules are all about protecting jobs
Kevin Caulfield, a product line director at Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions, understands that general counsel don’t want their departments to be viewed solely as cost centers. Many of them strive to show how they can be good business partners with other parts of their organization by focusing on initiatives that will help reduce costs and generate revenue. To Caulfield, one of the ways this can be achieved is through enterprise legal management technology. Although many long-established corporate legal departments have already made good use of this technology, he says, there are many growing companies that still may not realize the benefits of an enterprise legal management solution. His remarks have been edited for length and style.
Continue Reading Is It Time to Automate? Eager to avoid being seen as cost centers, law departments are increasingly leveraging technology
Interview with Janet Langford Carrig / ConocoPhillips & Kimberly Simpson / National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD)
From October 1 to 4 at the National Harbor in Maryland, the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) will hold its Global Board Leaders’ Summit. The event brings together some 1,500 board members and corporate executives, including general counsel, to discuss the hottest governance issues facing boardrooms today. Janet Langford Carrig, GC of ConocoPhillips, and NACD regional director Kimberly Simpson discuss why the event presents a unique learning and networking opportunity for general counsel and corporate directors alike. Their remarks have been edited for length and style.
Continue Reading GCs and Directors: Strategic Corporate Assets on Parallel Paths: A conference brings them together and points out common goals
Ransomware. Just the word itself is enough to chill the hearts of everyone from personal users to IT professionals to senior executives. May 12th’s massive attack took down hundreds, perhaps thousands, of companies and unknown numbers of individuals and institutions, including the United Kingdom’s healthcare systems (with possible impacts including critical patient care and historical medical records).
Continue Reading How to Protect Your Company from Ransomware Attacks
“Text mining” refers to software that can find patterns in text and extract meaning from them. It offers plenty of useful applications. For instance, law departments can benefit from text mining any time they collect a fair number of comments from surveys. I have used it myself for client projects.
Here’s how it might be useful for you. Let’s assume that a large number of your internal clients completed a satisfaction survey. One question was open-ended: “Overall, what would you like to say to the law department?” As a complement to coding those remarks by hand, text-mining software can spot commonly used words, classify the comment as favorable or unfavorable and even tease out thematic topics.Continue Reading Text Mining Can Help You Drill Down
Interview with Brian Bauer / PHENIX Investigations, Inc.
Brian Bauer, chief executive officer of PHENIX Investigations, Inc., took an unusual path to a career in corporate investigations. He didn’t come from a career in law enforcement, as so many investigators have. But his background helped him hone an approach that has served him well during his two decades in business. And it’s one that a lot of businesses would do well to emulate. It’s all about the clients. The interview has been edited for style and length.Continue Reading Corporate Investigations Made Easy: How one firm lets the clients call the shots
Interview with Alice Hsu / Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP
Alice Hsu, a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, focuses on capital markets and corporate governance. Her family’s favored professions, however, were centered around medicine and engineering, leading Alice to wonder what her life would have been like had she followed one of those paths. In any case, she harbors no regrets – the lawyer’s life (as a corporate dealmaker) has suited her just fine. The interview has been edited for style and length.Continue Reading Navigating the Bumps: A corporate partner tries to help other women find legal jobs and thrive
